- 2 days ago
Scientists discovered a bizarre “Bermuda Triangle” in space where satellites glitch, shut down, or lose data for no clear reason, and it’s freaking out engineers. This strange zone, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, sits above part of South America and Africa, where Earth’s magnetic field dips unusually low and lets high-energy radiation slam into orbiting spacecraft. Satellites that pass through it experience weird failures, scrambled signals, and sudden resets, forcing space agencies to redesign hardware just to survive the trip. Some researchers even think the anomaly might be growing or shifting, which could cause even bigger problems for future missions. And in this video, you’ll explore why this cosmic danger zone exists and how it keeps messing with our most important satellites. Credit:
New Magnetic Process: By NASA Goddard/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith; NASA Goddard's Conceptual Image Lab/Josh Masters - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12901, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Spacecraft_Finds_New_Magnetic_Process_in_Turbulent_Space.webm
Supercharging the Radiation Belts: By NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12328, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Supercharging_the_Radiation_Belts.webm
Magnetic 'Dent: By NASA Goddard / YouTube, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Explores_Earth%27s_Magnetic_%27Dent%27_qpdQcw_52iM.webm
NASA’s LEXI: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - eMITS/Lacey Young, eMITS/Beth Anthony, eMITS/Vanessa Thomas, NASA/Hyunju Connor - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14739, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:From_the_Moon,_NASA%E2%80%99s_LEXI_Will_Reveal_[…]E2%80%99s_Magnetic_Shield_(SVS14739_LEXI_1080_ProRes).webm
Martian Magnetosphere: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - SSAI/Andrew J Christensen, eMITS/Joy Ng, UCLA/Yingjuan Ma, University of California, Berkeley/Robert Lillis - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5502, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_Storm_Excites_Martian_Magnetosphere_(SVS5[…]Extended_10-8-2024a_jmag_normal_flightB_noAnnotation).webm
Earth: Making of a Planet / Handel Productions
Geomagnetic Storm: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - SSAI/Andrew J Christensen, Global Science and Technology, Inc./Tom Bridgman, ADNET Systems, Inc./Laurence Schuler, ADNET Systems, Inc./Ian Jones, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Slava Merkin, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Eric L. Winter - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5193, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geomagnetic_Storm_Causes_Satellite_Loss_(SVS5193).webm
Solar Maximum Period: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - eMITS/Beth Anthony, ADNET Systems, Inc./Abbey A. Interrante, SGT/Sarah Frazier - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14683, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA,_NOAA_Announce_That_the_Sun_Has_Reached_th[…]ar_Maximum_Period_(SVS14683_-_010_SEP-spacecraft_v01).webm
Atmospheric Response: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - SSAI/Andrew J Christensen, ADNET Systems, Inc./Laurence Schuler, ADNET Systems, Inc./Ian Jones, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Slava Merkin, NASA/GSFC/Douglas E. Rowland, Catholic University of America/Katherine Garcia-Sage, ADNET Systems, Inc./Rachel Lense, eMITS/Lacey Young - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5435, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geomagnetic_and_Atmospheric_Response_to_May_2024_Solar_Storm_(SVS5435).webm
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Dickinsonia costata: By Ghedoghedo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16252838
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Dickinsonia observed: By Citronnel, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150266782
CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0:
Life in the Ediacaran sea: By Ryan Somma, FunkMonk, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24277381
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0:
Hubblecast 77: By ESA/Hubble - http://spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast77a/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hubblecast_77.webm
Entstehung und Quellen: By ZDF/Terra X/Faszination Erde/C. Götz-Sobel/O. Rötz/M. Zimmermann/Maximilian Mohr - https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/terra-x/entstehung-und-quellen-des-himalaya-gebirges-creative-commons-clip-100.html, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Entstehung_und_Quellen_des_Himalaya-Gebirges.webm
CC BY 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5:
DickinsoniaCostata: By Verisimilus, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3262792
Animation is created by Bright Side.
New Magnetic Process: By NASA Goddard/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith; NASA Goddard's Conceptual Image Lab/Josh Masters - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12901, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Spacecraft_Finds_New_Magnetic_Process_in_Turbulent_Space.webm
Supercharging the Radiation Belts: By NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12328, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Supercharging_the_Radiation_Belts.webm
Magnetic 'Dent: By NASA Goddard / YouTube, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Explores_Earth%27s_Magnetic_%27Dent%27_qpdQcw_52iM.webm
NASA’s LEXI: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - eMITS/Lacey Young, eMITS/Beth Anthony, eMITS/Vanessa Thomas, NASA/Hyunju Connor - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14739, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:From_the_Moon,_NASA%E2%80%99s_LEXI_Will_Reveal_[…]E2%80%99s_Magnetic_Shield_(SVS14739_LEXI_1080_ProRes).webm
Martian Magnetosphere: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - SSAI/Andrew J Christensen, eMITS/Joy Ng, UCLA/Yingjuan Ma, University of California, Berkeley/Robert Lillis - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5502, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_Storm_Excites_Martian_Magnetosphere_(SVS5[…]Extended_10-8-2024a_jmag_normal_flightB_noAnnotation).webm
Earth: Making of a Planet / Handel Productions
Geomagnetic Storm: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - SSAI/Andrew J Christensen, Global Science and Technology, Inc./Tom Bridgman, ADNET Systems, Inc./Laurence Schuler, ADNET Systems, Inc./Ian Jones, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Slava Merkin, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Eric L. Winter - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5193, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geomagnetic_Storm_Causes_Satellite_Loss_(SVS5193).webm
Solar Maximum Period: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - eMITS/Beth Anthony, ADNET Systems, Inc./Abbey A. Interrante, SGT/Sarah Frazier - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14683, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA,_NOAA_Announce_That_the_Sun_Has_Reached_th[…]ar_Maximum_Period_(SVS14683_-_010_SEP-spacecraft_v01).webm
Atmospheric Response: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - SSAI/Andrew J Christensen, ADNET Systems, Inc./Laurence Schuler, ADNET Systems, Inc./Ian Jones, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Slava Merkin, NASA/GSFC/Douglas E. Rowland, Catholic University of America/Katherine Garcia-Sage, ADNET Systems, Inc./Rachel Lense, eMITS/Lacey Young - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5435, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geomagnetic_and_Atmospheric_Response_to_May_2024_Solar_Storm_(SVS5435).webm
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Dickinsonia costata: By Ghedoghedo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16252838
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Dickinsonia observed: By Citronnel, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150266782
CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0:
Life in the Ediacaran sea: By Ryan Somma, FunkMonk, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24277381
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0:
Hubblecast 77: By ESA/Hubble - http://spacetelescope.org/videos/hubblecast77a/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hubblecast_77.webm
Entstehung und Quellen: By ZDF/Terra X/Faszination Erde/C. Götz-Sobel/O. Rötz/M. Zimmermann/Maximilian Mohr - https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/terra-x/entstehung-und-quellen-des-himalaya-gebirges-creative-commons-clip-100.html, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Entstehung_und_Quellen_des_Himalaya-Gebirges.webm
CC BY 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5:
DickinsoniaCostata: By Verisimilus, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3262792
Animation is created by Bright Side.
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FunTranscript
00:00A huge invisible danger zone is hanging above Earth, messing with satellites, zapping electronics, and giving astronauts a headache.
00:09Scientists call it the South Atlantic Anomaly, and it's kind of like the Bermuda Triangle of space,
00:15because weird stuff happens there, and nobody fully understands why.
00:20Want to know more about this thing?
00:22Well, Earth has a magnetic field that protects us from dangerous radiation from the sun.
00:30We'll talk about it later.
00:32And over one spot on the planet right above the South Atlantic Ocean, that shield gets weirdly weak.
00:39It stretches over South America and parts of Africa, creating a sort of magnetic soft spot.
00:46That weak spot is bad news for anything flying up there.
00:50When satellites travel through it, their systems can freak out.
00:54Computers freeze, data gets scrambled, and sometimes entire instruments shut down.
01:00Basically, the space version of your phone glitching out right when you need it most.
01:07Astronauts have to be extra careful in this region, too.
01:10When the International Space Station passes through the anomaly, radiation levels spike.
01:15It's not enough to fry anyone, but it's surely not fun.
01:20The equipment can take a serious hit.
01:23No one knows exactly what's going on yet, but scientists think the SAA might be a clue that Earth's magnetic field is shifting.
01:32If that's true, it could mean big changes for the future, for us all.
01:37You see, the South Atlantic anomaly is connected to Earth's molten insides.
01:44Deep beneath the surface, the planet's core and mantle are constantly moving, flowing, and clashing.
01:50The outer core is a swirling ocean of liquid metal, and the mantle above is hot, solid rock.
01:57Under Africa, there's nothing to cool things down.
02:00The mantle is hotter than usual, which creates certain instability in the magnetic field above.
02:07As for South America, there, the Nazca plate is dragging rock and debris down toward the core.
02:14This cools things off and keeps the field more stable.
02:18Such a wild temperature difference seems to be fueling the anomaly.
02:22According to some sources, it drives it across the Atlantic.
02:26The anomaly is slowly drifting westward.
02:30The thing is, Earth's magnetic field protects us from dangerous radiation from space,
02:37powerful solar winds, and wild swings in temperature, and keeps our atmosphere in check.
02:43But over millions of years, the magnetic poles have flipped.
02:47When it happens, north becomes south, south becomes north.
02:51And during those flips, the field can weaken.
02:54And some scientists thought the South Atlantic anomaly might be a warning sign before a full magnetic reversal.
03:02It could mean disaster to humans, but we'll talk about it later.
03:06The good news is, these flips take over.
03:10On average, Earth flips its magnetic poles about two times per million years.
03:15That means the next reversal could be hundreds of thousands of years away.
03:20Nearly 600 million years ago, our planet's shield almost failed.
03:26But at that time, it could have been a good thing.
03:30Scientists think this near collapse might have triggered a massive evolutionary boost
03:35and helped the first complex lifeforms to evolve.
03:38Back then, during a period called the Etiakaran, the magnetic field weakened drastically
03:44and stayed that weak for about 26 million years.
03:49With less protection, solar radiation removed lighter gases from the atmosphere,
03:54leaving oxygen floating freely in the air and oceans.
03:59That oxygen helped the first multicellular oxygen-breathing organisms to see the light of day.
04:05Those were strange, squishy creatures that hardly resembled animals today.
04:10Some were disc-shaped blobs, fronds, or shapeless fans stretching over three feet long.
04:17By the way, one of the earliest known animals, Dickinsonia, was among them.
04:23It looks kind of pretty, doesn't it?
04:26Now, how do we know all this?
04:29Thanks to rocks.
04:31They're like time capsules.
04:32Tiny crystals inside them preserve the power of the magnetic field from hundreds of thousands of years ago.
04:39For example, certain crystals from southern Brazil revealed that 591 million years ago,
04:46Earth's magnetic field was 30 times weaker than it is now.
04:50And rocks from South Africa dating back 2 billion years showed that the field was at full strength back then.
04:57Now, let's explore a bit.
04:59Deep beneath our feet, there's Earth's inner core.
05:04We're used to thinking about it as a perfect solid ball.
05:07But new research suggests it might be changing shape.
05:11Over the past 20 years, parts of the inner core may have bulged or dipped by more than 300 feet.
05:17That's like a skyscraper popping up or sinking deep underground inside the planet.
05:24This core spins independently from the outer liquid core, which creates the magnetic field that shields us from dangerous solar radiation.
05:33The magnetosphere is non-negotiable.
05:36Without it, Earth would lose its atmosphere over time.
05:41Water would vanish, and life as we know it wouldn't survive.
05:45It basically keeps the planet alive.
05:48Without it, Earth could turn into a barren Mars, which lost its magnetic field billions of years ago.
05:54And along with it, almost all its atmosphere.
05:57It seems to happen where the solid inner core meets the super-hot liquid outer core.
06:07The molten metal flows around it, and combined with the tug of an uneven gravity field, likely warps its edges.
06:14Scientists can't drill down to the core to check this theory.
06:18It's 3,200 miles below the surface.
06:21But they can track seismic waves from earthquakes as they ripple through Earth.
06:27They measure how these shock waves bend, slow down, or speed up,
06:31and it can help figure out what the inner core is made of and how it moves.
06:36That's probably how they know that the solid inner core is slowly growing,
06:40freezing layer by layer of the liquid outer core.
06:44But don't worry, it'll take billions of years to fully solidify.
06:48By that point, life on Earth would probably already be gone anyway.
06:53The Sun's going to swallow our planet long before the inner core stops moving.
06:59But let's get back to the topic that, I bet, worries you most.
07:03What if Earth's magnetic field just vanished one day?
07:07Well, the planet would be hit by a storm of charged particles from the Sun.
07:11Satellites would start glitching and power grids would go down.
07:15We would get zapped with higher levels of UV radiation,
07:18the kind that can cause all kinds of serious health issues.
07:23In short, it wouldn't be instant doom, but life would get a lot trickier.
07:28Luckily, now we know that a magnetic field doesn't just vanish overnight,
07:33but ours has been slowly weakening for over a century.
07:38So what would life on a planet with a super-weak magnetic field look like?
07:43You would just have to throw away your compass.
07:46It wouldn't point north anymore, just towards the nearest patch of strongest magnetism,
07:51wherever that may be.
07:53The northern and southern lights would go insane,
07:56appearing closer to the equator,
07:58all because charged solar particles would be able to get through the atmosphere more easily.
08:04Satellites would be under constant attack.
08:07Solar particles would fry their electronics,
08:10mess with memory, and cause what scientists call single-event upsets.
08:15High-frequency radio signals would also get scrambled,
08:19thanks to free electrons in the ionosphere.
08:22Over time, the solar wind could even start wearing down the ozone layer,
08:27leaving us all more exposed to UV radiation.
08:31Now, let's decrease the level of drama.
08:35A magnetic field isn't the only thing keeping a planet alive.
08:39Mars did lose its magnetic shield about 4 billion years ago,
08:43and most of its atmosphere got blown away.
08:46But Venus has no global magnetic field, but still has a thick atmosphere.
08:52If Earth lost its magnetic field completely, we wouldn't instantly vanish.
08:57But life would definitely change,
08:59and we would have to get used to these drastic changes.
09:02That's it for today.
09:04So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
09:06then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:09Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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